by N. M. Howell
“I don’t know. I was surrounded by my friends and then there was this flash of blue light and an incredibly powerful burst of cold energy. And then I was underground. I don’t know exactly what happened, but someone in that room cast a spell on me. The day before, I had just found out that we had a traitor onboard. Someone had been spying on us for the University, but I never learned who.”
“They’re cleverer than I thought,” Saeryn said, her eyes narrowing with great concern. “But that is a matter for another time. Has your dragonblood healed you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. How long ago was it that you saw your friends?”
“Earlier today. This morning.”
“Did anything happen in the time you were on the ship?”
“No, nothing I can remember. We hid under ground for two hundred and forty days, beneath the University. We came up on the one hundred and ninety-first day of this year. That was two days ago. Since then—”
“The one hundred and ninety-first day?” Saeryn interrupted. “But that would make this the one hundred and ninety-third.”
“Right. So, then we were at sea and—”
“But that’s impossible,” Saeryn insisted, with a look on her face that Andie couldn’t understand.
“What do you mean ‘impossible?’”
“Today is the two hundred and twenty-sixth day of the year.”
Andie stared at Saeryn. That couldn’t be. It was the same day, it had to be.
“No, that’s not right,” Andie said. “We boarded on 191 and this morning was 193.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s not. We’ve kept excellent track of our passage in this world and made every effort to stay appraised of the world’s ways. Today is 226.”
“But that means that... I’ve been... away... for thirty-three days. But how?”
“Your back,” Saeryn said, suddenly overcome with nervous energy. “Let me see your back.”
“Does she have the marks?” the warrior asked.
Andie turned around and allowed Saeryn to check her back. She heard more gasps from the people nearby and turned back to Saeryn. Andie began to feel her own back in a kind of mute and frantic terror.
“What’s wrong with me?” she asked. “What’s back there? What have they done to me?”
“This,” Saeryn said, turning to show Andie her back.
Andie could see that Saeryn had a blue tattoo on her back, only more like a scar than something done on purpose. It looked like a hurried infinity symbol with a harsh L drawn in the exact center. The entire design was glowing blue. Saeryn turned around to face Andie again.
“Eitilt,” she said. “The time curse.”
“What?” Andie said, still feeling her back.
“We know it well. It was the spell the sorcerers used to trap our people. That spell was older, more powerful, and it stretched from the day they overpowered us to the day you freed us. Centuries. It would appear that the one that was cast on you was more hurried, narrower, but the result is the same. You were taken from your time and put down in the future. In this case—”
“Thirty-three days,” Andie said, dumbfounded. “I can’t believe this. What about my friends? Are they okay? Are they even alive?”
“I don’t know. I’m so sorry, my dear Andryne.
“I believe she goes by Andie,” the warrior mentioned as he strode past. He winked at her as she caught his eye.
Just then a powerful bolt of lightning stabbed the mountain and shook the cavern so hard that stalactites fell from the ceiling. Saeryn disintegrated them with a wave of her hand, including one that fell directly over Andie.
“What is this place?” Andie asked. “Where are we?”
“These lands were known by another name in our time, but I believe your era calls this the Hot Salts of Mithraldia.”
“So, I was right. You came here to throw the University off your trail.”
“Not merely the University, but the world. Andie, why didn’t you protect yourself? You could have used magic to destroy that falling thing.”
“I can’t use magic. I still have my icon. It’s a kind of monitoring device that all the students at the University have to wear in order to attend. We haven’t been able to do magic since the night of the portal because the University can track us if we do and...”
Andie’s hands flew to her head. She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid.
“No! I used my magic to pull myself out of the ground. The University will have noticed that. I’m so sorry, Saeryn. I don’t know how I could have been so careless.”
Saeryn moved forward and took Andie by her shoulders. She smiled down at her and just the expression on her face brought Andie to a calmer state.
“Andie, it’s fine. We’ve covered these peaks with protective magic. And if by some chance they did monitor your actions and decided to come here, they would not find themselves very welcome. After the carnage of their last battle with us, I do not believe they would be so eager to attack again, not without some weapon or magic much more powerful than what they possessed last time. However, if there is a traitor among your company and if that traitor did indeed send you here, then the University already knows where to come for you. And us. But none of that is your fault, nor should it be your concern. You did an ineffable service to us in bringing us out of that portal. We know you would never willingly compromise us. It is not your fault that there is evil in the world.”
Andie felt much better after Saeryn’s words and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She looked around the group and everyone was smiling at her. No one was angry or concerned. She truly was among her own kind. As she looked at the faces, she saw one she remembered. Lymir. When he saw that she was looking at him, he came over to her. She hugged him.
“It does me a world o’ good to see ye, girl,” he said, holding her tight. “I hadn’t been sure I would. Tell me, ye still carry the ole bracelet I give ye?”
“I haven’t taken it off yet,” she said, holding up her wrist. “But I’m confused. What are you doing here?”
“All in proper time,” he said, smiling and turning to Saeryn.
“Andie, did anyone else on your ship know where you wanted to come?”
“Yes. The captain.”
“And can he be trusted?”
“He’ll follow the heading, of that I’m sure. But if you want the truth, Saeryn, I don’t know if anyone on that ship can be trusted.”
“Very well. If you were taken thirty-three days ago then they should be getting close to us by now, no doubt coming from the sea down the long belly of the Nathair River that runs behind the mountain. For now, we’ll get that thing out of you. We have no surgeons, as dragonblood heals us, but there are those of us who are skilled in medicinal magic. We should have you free of the University’s eye within the hour.”
Saeryn had not lied. In a little less than an hour, the chief examiner of the dragonborn, Gordenson, had removed the icon from Andie. The process was slow and painful, and eventually revealed yet another deception of the University. The icon, once inserted into the palm, began to slowly burrow its way deeper into the host with each passing day. Eventually it settled up somewhere around the heart; it only appeared to stay in the palm because it was spelled to manifest its light and sensations there. Gordenson said that with time the University probably would have been able to kill the host with a mere whisper of a spell—an unbelievably deadly prediction seeing as to how more than a third of the sorcerers in Noelle were educated at the University and they all kept the icons for life. Gordenson finally removed Andie’s through her back.
Chapter Nine
For the next three days, Andie lived among her people and began to learn their ways. She began to learn their language and customs, how they prepared their food and what life was like in the time from which they came. She learned a lot about the dragons, too, including what to feed them and how each dragonborn could develop an extrasensory relationship with their drago
n. She never allowed herself to grow content or to forget the circumstances that she could never run from, but she was aware that she was dangerously close to being fulfilled.
However, countless things still weighed heavily on her. She couldn’t stop wondering who the traitor was or if the rest of her friends had figured it out. She was worried about her father; she’d only seen him for a few seconds, but even then he looked weak, tired. And if there was someone onboard strong enough to cast a spell on her and land her in the future, then she had no idea what else that person might be capable of. She had finally calmed down enough to think rationally, however. She knew Marvo couldn’t be the traitor because he had no magic; she’d been so shaken and startled before that she hadn’t even considered it. Her father was out. But that still left six people.
She was willing to give Carmen and Yara the benefit of the doubt after some thought, possibly even Murakami. Though, Andie wouldn’t fully pull them off the list, she was so jarred by it all. She knew very little about Kent, Sarinda, and Lilja and at first that was enough for her to convict them. But the issue with that theory was that those three were essentially small cogs in the machine of the rebellion. Andie couldn’t think of a single instance where those three had been included in major decision-making or had been privy to anything but the most obvious plans. How could they spy if they didn’t have access to the pertinent information? Access that Carmen, Yara, and Murakami had plenty of. It was hopeless.
At least with her icon removed Andie could enjoy her magic again. She took advantage of the seclusion of the mountain and the knowledge of Saeryn and began to practice and to increase her power. Even Saeryn was impressed. Andie made many new friends among her people, most notably the warrior who’d picked her up when she first arrived. His name was Oren and he seemed to have taken an instant liking to Andie. He never crowded her, but always made himself available to her and was kinder and more attentive than anyone else. Andie greatly admired him and they spent a lot of time sharing stores about their vastly different lives.
On the morning of Andie’s fifth day on the mountain, the two hundred and thirtieth day of the year, a ship was spotted on the Nathair. Oren saw it while out on watch duty and reported it to Saeryn. From the description he gave, Andie knew it was her ship. She was happy and devastated that they had finally arrived: she had no idea what to expect. For all she knew the traitor had taken over the ship and allowed the University professors and Searchers to board. Or maybe it was just the traitor and everyone onboard was dead. Or maybe the traitor had been discovered and contained, and everything was alright. She honestly had no idea what was coming up that river for her.
Saeryn suggested that a party be formed to meet the travelers at the ship, rather than allow the unidentified traitor to see their actual caverns. Oren, Saeryn, and a few others mounted dragons and pushed off from the mountainside to plunge down to the earth. Andie rode with Oren.
The dragons dove in perfect lines, curving only just enough to avoid touching the mountain. They met and cut through the black clouds and suddenly Andie found herself among the fierce lightning again. The sound was incredible, the vibrations and energy of the air were bracing. The dragons dove as if there was nothing in the world that could hurt them. They soared down, down, down, until they were mere yards above the river and then they leveled out and flew straight for the ship.
As they came closer, Andie could see that there were no people on the decks of the ship. Everybody was below deck, maybe because of the lightning. Andie couldn’t tell. The riders made their dragons fly a brief circle around the ship for reconnaissance and then Oren and Saeryn landed on the upper deck. The weight of the two dragons rocked the ship and the deck groaned under their bulk. The other warriors decided to fly high and nearby to keep a watch over the ship and its surroundings. They flew up into the thunderous sky. Andie, Saeryn, and Oren dismounted and Andie led them toward the captain’s room, but before they rounded the corner, they were met by two people. The captain and Raesh.
Before Andie could register that it was real or could get a word out, Raesh had her in his arms. She didn’t know how long they stayed like that. She realized then that she hadn’t known how badly, how deeply, she had missed him. And now that she knew for certain that he wasn’t the traitor—he hadn’t been anywhere near that room—it made the reunion that much sweeter. They finally let each other go, but couldn’t stop smiling.
“What happened to you? Where have you been?” Raesh began. “How did you get here? How long have you been here? Are you hurt? Are your people okay? Did you—”
“I’m fine, Raesh,” she said with a smile, grabbing his arms to calm him. “Everything is fine. Someone who was in the room with me cast a spell and sent me to the future. I landed on the mountainside five days ago and I’ve been with my people ever since. They’re all fine. What about you? What happened after I was gone?”
“Chaos. When you disappeared, everything went into anarchy. Factions formed, suspicions grew, everyone was scared and confused. We almost had a civil war. No one could figure out what happened to you. We put everyone who was in the room with you in individual cells and spelled them so that they couldn’t talk to anyone, including each other.”
“What about your father?”
“Him, too. I know he doesn’t have magic, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have been in on it somehow.”
“Raesh, you can’t be serious.”
“Andie, I wouldn’t have thought anyone in that room would ever want to hurt you, let alone be powerful enough to make you disappear. I love him, but I had to.”
“A sacrifice I’m sure he understands,” said Saeryn.
“I’m sorry. Raesh, you remember Saeryn from the portal. She’s the Queen of my people. And this is Oren, one of the dragonborn warriors. Oren, Saeryn, this is Raesh and the captain.”
Everyone exchanged greetings pleasantly, though Andie did not miss a certain hesitancy between Raesh and Oren. The captain led them back to the control room.
“It wasn’t easy getting here,” he said. “Coming from the sea to the mouth of the Nathair brought us through the Gray Fold.”
“Yes, we know of that,” Saeryn said. “Even in our time many ship would take a longer route than risk going through those turbulent waters. Most who attempted it did not return.”
“We almost went around ourselves, but time was of the essence. Luckily for us, ships are a lot stronger these days. There was some contention about which mountain range to take, but I finally broke and told Raesh that you had picked this one, Andie, and so on we came.”
“There’s been contention about everything,” Raesh said, his hands on his hips. “We’re barely holding it together, but seeing you and your people is going to do everybody a lot of good, Andie. Everybody calmed down some when it was decided that the traitor had to have been someone in that room, though we still had no idea what happened. Narrowing it down to eight people out of five hundred helped. But you’re what we need.”
“I’ll meet with them,” Andie said. “But until we figure out exactly what happened and who did it, it’s probably best that everyone stays on the ship. For the protection of my people.”
“We should go down now and let you bring peace,” Saeryn said. “Oren, wait here with the captain and we will try to be brief.”
Oren bowed and took up a post near the map. Andie smiled at him, but he only barely returned it. Raesh led them out and then down to the lower decks where Andie began to listen for sounds of the passengers, but there was nothing. It was silent. They went down another level to where the cabins were and even there it was eerily quiet. Even Saeryn seemed ill at ease in the halls. Eventually they came to the large meeting room where the fighters had been meeting the day Andie disappeared. It was totally empty. The three of them walked in and up to the platform.
“We can wait here,” said Raesh. “They should be coming in soon. The captain made the announcement to meet here when we saw the dragons approaching.”
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“What’s taking them so long?” Andie asked.
“They didn’t want to come until they were armed and ready to fight. I’m sorry, Andie, but we didn’t know that you were here and we didn’t know if your people would be friendly with us after we told them we’d lost you.”
“A sound judgement,” Saeryn said. “We would not have attacked you and we would have welcomed you with open arms, but it would have undone a great amount of trust to have come without our savior.”
Andie cringed at the word—it didn’t seem fitting. She’d gotten them out of the portal, but that hardly counted for saving them. As soon as they were out, the dragonborn had to save her and her friends from being wiped out by the University. Moreover, the dragonborn had been forced to go out on their own and face the new world, and Andie hadn’t been any help to them. They had saved her again on the mountainside.
“This is spinning out of control,” Andie said. “We’re supposed to be fighting the University, not each other. I can’t believe one person could do this to us. Are you any closer to figuring out who the spy is?”
“If anything, we’re starting to backtrack,” Raesh said. “This morning one of the factions started talking about how the spell might have been cast from outside the room, meaning we’re right back to having everyone on the suspect list. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we need to devise a plan to smoke this person out.”
As Raesh finished, the fighters began to stream in. Those of them that were humans came in covered with ammunition and holding their weapons of choice. Those of them who were sorcerers kept their hands slightly clinched, ready to cast at a moment’s notice. From the way they regarded one another as they came in Andie couldn’t tell if they were more threatened by what the dragonborn might do or by each other.
They came in, cautious, and came down to the front looking as if they or the situation might explode at any moment. But then they saw Andie and the change came over them: pure relief. They came up to her and shook her hand or hugged her and asked her so many questions at once that she couldn’t make any of them out. They didn’t quite allow themselves to smile, but the whole room seemed to take on a new atmosphere when their eyes met her face. She could tell then, for the first time, just how scared they truly were.